Tag Archives: Joni Mitchell

Adrian Teacher is a talented and award-winning musician who lives in Vancouver, British Columbia. Best known for his work in Apollo Ghosts and COOL TV, Teacher is also an accomplished solo musician who has just released another excellent, contemplative yet upbeat album with his backing band, the Subs. The record is called Terminal City, it’s out now via You’ve Changed Records, and Adrian Teacher and the Subs are touring across Canada in July with Weird Lines and Jon McKiel and then again in August with Julie Doiron and Construction and Destruction. Here, Adrian and I discuss what’s happening in his hot apartment, the most cataclysmic climate change situation of all time and Birkenstocks, writing songs about Vancouver, a city in transition, no hope, the last railroad spike and global connection, the controversy over Vancouver’s real estate situation, Liberal Premier Christy Clark’s call to end real estate’s self-regulation, growing up on Vancouver Island and relating to cities, housing inequity, addressing actual problems like social housing, centrist policies, million dollar shacks, despondence, the inspiring lives of children when you’re a teacher, parents just don’t understand, Nanaimo and Diana Krall, my sweet tooth, a good upbringing, getting into guitar at 10 years old, buying a four-track that once belonged to Alden Penner in 1996, The Wedge and Beck, Sloan at the Saratoga Speedway, Eric’s Trip, finding his voice in Apollo Ghosts and where that band came from, me and Apollo Ghosts at Sappyfest and a cape, why Apollo Ghosts stopped, his next band COOL TV, the Subs and Amanda P. and ‘Beautiful British’ Robbie, Jonathan Richman, Squeeze, Talking Heads, keeping lyrics fun and upbeat, Dan Bejar, Joni Mitchell, Bob Dylan, Stephen Malkmus, Ramones, musical ADHD, the outdoors, building a cabin, former Nanaimo mayor Frank Ney, the keyboardist from Trooper, Armageddon, the weirdness of Vancouver Island, special Canadian places, the last day of school teacher jam, touring Canada twice, Jon McKiel, Weird Lines, Julie Doiron, a new EP, making some music that’s more adult, John Collins, the label City Beautiful, Pavement, the song “Called Up,” Television, and that was it.

Kevin “Sipreano” Howes and Duke Redbird are both involved in a lovely and vital new compilation called Native North America (Vol. 1) – Aboriginal Folk, Rock, and Country 1966-1985, which is out now via Light in the Attic Records. Exhaustively researched curated by Howes, the triple LP/double CD features rare and scarce music made by the likes of Redbird, Willie Dunn, Sugluk, Willie Thrasher, Sikumlut, and many more figures from all across Canada. Earlier this week, Howes, Redbird, and I met in Toronto for a conversation about this project and here, we discuss things like the pool table that Duke painted, growing up in Richmond Hill Ontario with a killer record collection, getting into punk and hip-hop, sample-based culture and the roots of music, Bob Marley’s ska and early reggae records, Ty the record seller in Vancouver’s Red Barn Flea Market, truly underground Canadian music, becoming a music journalist and going on the road to hunt for cool records with Birdapres, discovering records by Alexsis Utatnaq, WIllie Dunn, and other Canadian indigenous artists, when CBC would document regional artists and press vinyl for internal use, musical investigation, Facebook and the internet are known as “the great radio” by some Inuit artists, tracking down Tayara Papigatuk from Sugluk via a local radio station, the rare interviews that contextualize Native North America (Vol. 1), people should pay for this compilation man, learning more about the roots of Canada and its brutal past, struggle, pain, joy, and punk rock, the ‘moment’ of heightened awareness for Native culture and issues, timelessness, Duke joins us, there’s been very little improvement in the social fabric of First Nations and the Canadian government, a guaranteed annual income among law-abiding citizens that’s similar to what prisoners receive, free market democracy, electronic re-tribalization via social media, wearable technologies, Me & U and the future is now, self-preservation and romance versus power and money, why indigenous culture doesn’t seem to experience the same civil rights progressive acceptance as that of other cultures and lifestyles, either or and why, agrarian cultures, commerce and greed, poetry and music, hanging out with Bruce Cockburn and Joni Mitchell in Toronto, why Native North America is hugely important for Aboriginal culture, this music is rare and somewhat uncollected, artistic resurrections, working for love, anthologizing Willie Dunn’s music and films, there’s more material out there, showcasing American artists in volume two, the song “Silver River” by Shingoose featuring the poetry of Duke Redbird, which was inspired by Redbird’s Yorkville flatmate Joni Mitchell, being around when Gordon Lightfoot, Murray McLachlan, and Sonny Terry and Brownie McGhee were hanging around Yorkville, writing a poem about an afternoon spent with Leonard Cohen and Ramblin’ Jack Elliott, and then it’s to the future.

Cold Specks is Al Spx, a talented and fearless singer, musician, and songwriter who calls Montreal home. Originally from a Toronto suburb called Etobicoke, Spx has garnered international attention for her powerful voice, dark-hued lyrics, and post-punk aesthetic, which is all the more unique given the rather folk-oriented feel of her 2012 debut album, I Predict a Graceful Expulsion. In late August, Arts & Crafts and Mute co-released its follow-up, a decidedly more forceful and sinister record called Neuroplasticity. Beginning November 5 in Cambridge, Massachusetts, Cold Specks is on tour across the world for the foreseeable future but we connected for a candid conversation at the Halifax Pop Explosion last month. The discussion covered topics like living in Montreal and visiting Halifax, Loel Campbell and Tim D’Eon of WIntersleep, living in England, the concept of neuroplasticity and how it might apply to Cold Specks, getting bored, trying to perform songs from I Predict a Graceful Expulsion, destruction of melody and subtle aggression, London and Glastonbury, hills and pagans, corporate witchtowns, no socks, sonic goblin, wearing capes and goth people, the trumpet of Ambrose Akinmusire and the voice of Swans’ Michael Gira, growing up in Etobicoke with her Somali parents, Rob and Doug and the Ford family, not quite apolitical, Al’s oud-playing, soul-singing dad ‘Dr. Love,’ the late, popular Somali singer Saado Ali Warsame, Swans, Bill Callahan, the Strokes, Tom Waits, and Nick Cave, the Strokes on Letterman and emerging after 9/11, the Backstreet Boys have come up on two straight episodes now, having a persona, creative pursuits, loving True Detective, Vince Vaughn, Colin Farrell, and Rachel McAdams, Band of Brothers, shooting a cannon at The Nutcracker, meeting Joni Mitchell who is awesome, the art of the interview, yelling at a Q guest host and other bad journalists, why I talk to people, being and not being a diva, touring a lot behind a record that came out kind of quietly, the Hotel2Tango and Howard Bilerman, why Montreal is good, not wanting to interact with anybody, the song “Absisto,” a nervous breakdown, and then the exit plan.